


Davide: Seek the Treehive

by holyneutrality (mystictopaztristar)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Captivity, Daftbent, Daftstuck, Gen, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Species Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 11:51:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2149737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystictopaztristar/pseuds/holyneutrality
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most days his chucklevoodooed mind is placid and fuzzy, a calming haze over everything, but sometimes the fog lifts, and Davide Stiride can barely sit still. Tonight, he chooses not to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Davide: Seek the Treehive

**Author's Note:**

> This is a stand alone character piece for a species swap, revolutionary, post-sburb/sgrub au, which orignated on tumblr. It's known to its creators as Daftstuck. but the url happens to be Daftbent, as the other was already taken. This work contains major spoilers for it. Therefore, this piece is being posted here only for now. I may group related works together as a series later, if more present themselves to me.

They'd punish him. Of course they would, but there's little they could do worse to him they'd already done. Maybe it would even be better. Roslyn might be inclined to lock him down completely. The downtrodden rust blood could only hope. The chinks in the glamour always hit harder than being lost in the mire, because then he had to remember everything. Feel everything.

She'd had to leave him his powers. What is a god without them? Nothing. Less than worthless. A fallen figurehead no longer of use to her. And while he knew she couldn't take them from him herself, she had a direct line to beings who quite likely could and had never let him forget it. They also always seemed to know when he'd attempted to use them, so they'd only be of help to him in getting in and out of his prison of a hive, but would give him away almost immediately. 

True escape via their use was equally impossible. Davide should know, since he's tried it before, with an extreme and violent lack of success. It seems that those whom the purpleblood Seer served existed outside time and returned her prize to her every time it attempted to slip away via time shenanigans. Having found her increasing displeasure anathema to the well being of both himself, which he cared little about, and innocent parties whom he was less inclined to view as expendable on his behalf, he finally acquiesced to stop trying in those fleeting moments of lucidity.

Tonight would be a different story, however. There's someone he hasn't seen in a very long time, whom he misses very dearly, despite appearances to the contrary. He wouldn't even be thinking about him if not for the rumors and whispers of unrest being fostered by a diurnal menace. For the continued safety of the party in question, he won't make his own presence known. In fact, his destination will hopefully remain a mystery. This is the fervent wish held as he made use of a fortuitous revelation.

Despite Harley's sequestering of his wings, he apparently still possessed the god tier gift of flight. He'd made the discovery quite by accident, having awoken from slumber with a scream upon realizing his face was pressed into the ceiling. By the time those in charge of his safekeeping had arrived to investigate the disturbance, he was back on the floor, looking sufficiently subdued as expected of him. Smiling vacantly at the guards, he responded placidly with the bullshit explanation he'd suffered a daymare. This seemed to have been taken at face value, as it was a genuinely regular occurrence, regardless of the fallacy of the day's claim.

Waiting until the night, when the patrols of his area were ironically the lightest due to the greater general population going about their business making escape more difficult, Davide began the execution of his plan, traveling back in time until his current residence didn't exit. To be fair and accurate, nothing existed at this moment in time save the void waiting to become the universe, himself and the Old Ones, but it'd do long enough for him to traverse the short physical distance he needed to cover in order to clear the edge of the castle and sight of the general population.

As soon as he felt he was as safe as he could be, he phased back into the future until it became what the others knew as the present. Ever since coming into full flush with his powers, any moment Davide existed in was the present to him, making the traversing it easier and also much more surreal, but enough musing on the intricacies of the flow of time as perceived by the captive knight. 

The flow of the land beneath him is of greater import at the moment. It sped by, but he by but he barely noticed it. He could still navigate it without a second thought, so ingrained was it into his memory. It's fortunate for him they decided it easier to simply cut off the ability of the treehive to connect with the ground than to move it some place untraceable, not that it would make it impossible for him to find. It would just be that much more difficult and dangerous to track down without potentially compromising the timeline and splintering it, two things he'd rather avoid whenever possible.

It didn't take especially long for him to arrive near the edge of the woods. Slowing, he pinpointed the tree, a simple task with the way it stands above all the others, calling to him like a beacon. He longed to go in, to stay, and he knew deep down he'd be welcome even after all this time and the apparent betrayal, but he can't. There are worse things than magically induced captivity, and they'll subject Jontan to them if they find out he's been in contact with him. That's a fate he sometimes wishes upon himself if only in some twisted attempt to atone for his weakness.

Now the real question, was he at the right time to see his diminutive blueblooded friend? The master of time floated around the hive, doing his best to remain out of the line of sight of the windows even as he peered in like the heartsick stalker he currently was. His ears went back, pressing tightly to his skull in sadness when he does catch sight of the object of this trek. He looked so good, better than expected. He's being so well taken care of. This should make Davide happy, but it has the opposite effect, because he shouldn't need to be taken care of. Jontan was always plenty capable. The blueblood's kind, cheerful exterior belies a can-do attitude he'd always admired.

Attempting to venture slightly closer, the rustblood ducked back again as he caught sight of another figure moving around in there with him. It's the rainbow drinker! It'd be hard for anyone near the ruling party to not know about the infamous mutant red undead troll wreaking havoc hither and yon across their lands. It'd only been perigees, but there were few who hadn't heard of the great and terrible prophet of the Wind God.

Davide had never known quite what the relationship the glowing menace had to his former moirail before Roslyn put the current farce in place, but he'd figured it must be a close one. No one goes to that much trouble unless they care deeply for the object of their devotion. And the scissors in his hand and position behind him indicate Jontan trusts this guy. 

He couldn't hear their conversation, but it was animated and amiable, tinged only slightly with animosity. Unable to discern the true nature of their relationship from this current position, he simply continued to watch the pair, hungry for the sight of his friend and burning every memory of this moment into his mind as deeply as possible. Maybe some of them would survive the next onslaught Roslyn leveled against him.

It's not until the taller figure leaned around to peck Jontan that Davide lost his ability to keep silent. There wasn't anything particularly carnal about the kiss, so his mind worked to fit the clues together in every possible configuration of the puzzle. He let out a low whine of distressed frustration at the various results, which shouldn't have given his position away through the closed windows, but one of the gifts of resurrection is heightened senses. White ears flicked and his head tilted, obviously questioning Jontan if he'd “heard that too.” The smaller troll hadn't heard anything, but that didn't stop his partner in coif care from going to investigate. 

Fortunately for the interloper, he's fast enough to no longer be there, already on the way back to his gilded cage. He barreled along the return path, tears blurring his vision behind his shades. Even as he reappeared in his hive, he heard Harley bitching out the guard currently posted to watch over him. He wiped his eyes before replacing his shades and fixing a smile to his face to greet his “beloved” and ask what the problem was. Her eyes narrowed at him, not buying the ablution block story for a second. Roslyn didn't send her on a fool's errand on false information, and they both knew it.

Shutting the door soundly behind them, the jadeblood planted a kiss on him before fetching their mistress to deal with the wayward time god who simply waited for his punishment calmly, having expected it from the beginning, although perhaps not so swiftly. Better to get it over with and go under again sooner, he thought, taking a seat in the nearby chair. Any hope he has now is placed firmly in whatever is being planned on the other side of their lands and the other side of the barrier. An almost hysterical smile returned to his face when the familiar flashpop announced the females' return. Only a little longer, a little more pain perhaps, and all would be “right” in his world once more.


End file.
